Re: 1932 Packard question

Posted by James Butcher On 2011/10/11 22:54:51

Owen,

It is refreshing to find someone who knows automotive history.

Thomas "Tommy" W. Milton (first winner of the Indy 500) had designed a front wheel drive racer and Packard's chief engineer Col. Jesse Gurney Vincent had developed a V-12 engine. Milton was commissioned by Packard to develop a FWD and the new version V-12 engine design by Cornelius "C.W." Van Ranst. But the depression killed efforts to bring it to production and Packard paid $10k to Milton and Van Ranst for the rights and the new V-12 was introduced as a RWD in 1932.

This brings me back to the X frame question because the Cord L-29 frame was designed and patented by Van Ranst. The original ladder frame during the 1927 road trials failed to keep the car from twisting and rattling. Auburn's chief engineer Herbert C. Snow was on the trip and had remembered seeing a X Frame design on the Lancia Dilambda at the 1927 New York Auto Salon. He made scale models of the frame with an X brace which worked and was incorporated in Van Ranst's design. Assuming that the 1932 Packard Twin Six frame could be a one model, one year only design (waiting on a validation)... wonder if it was originally created for the FWD engine?

By the way, the Cord L-29 is NOT the first American automobile using an X frame design as many books have written. It was the 1929 Stutz Blackhawk - again a one model one year only design (no 1930s are recorded). Blackhawk was introduced in January 1929 while the Cord in August 1929 as a 1930 model year. And neither were the "first" production X as that can be traced back to the early 1920s in France.

Part of my X frame interest is for a book and part for personal collections such as the diagrams and dimensions.

Eric Huffstutler

[*Edit Update...Think I answered my own question providing that the 1933 V12 1005-1006 Owner's Manual shows the correct chassis... that the frame is different than the 1932 version and the 1933 looks like the other models. This again leads me to believe that the design was for the FWD on the 1932 V-12 model.]